THE HEADSMAN

A suburban Friday the 13th for adults: the latest incarnation of an 18th-century executioner is stalking the bedrooms of Braddock, N.Y., beheading lubricious teens. Young police chief Jud MacElroy, shunted aside by state officials, concentrates on the murders' similarities to the unsolved beheading 30 years ago of Janet Donovan-- a tramp who'd been friendly with all the future town fathers--while running down the leads he's coaxed out of unwilling psychic Karen Wilson, who keeps having detailed visions of a man in black swinging a double-handled ax at young lovers, potential witnesses, and finally Jud's girlfriend, reporter Sally Benson. Hidden beneath the pornographic violence and Sunday-supplement mythopoeia is a tidy little puzzle complete with clues, misdirection, and a deftly hidden culprit. See if you can find him before Harvey (By Reason of Insanity, etc.) kills again.